• When are you going to launch in new cities?
• Why are you routing me down busy roads?
• Are you going to do bicycle routing?
• Why don’t you have more comprehensive footpath data?
• Why don’t you show more landmarks/features on your mapping?
• How do I zoom in and out and pan around the maps?
• How can I print things out (and at a legible scale)?
• Are you going to add more ‘via’ options?
• Why can’t I see any maps?
• How do you calculate your carbon figures?
• How do you calculate your Calorie figures?
• What do the Calorie figures mean?
• How do you calculate your slow/medium/fast walking times?
• Isn’t it sometimes unsafe to walk?
• Your low–pollution route didn’t go the way I would have expected. Why might this be?
• Are you working with the London Mayor’s Office or Transport for London?

When are you going to launch in new cities?

We have a development programme that will see walkit.com launched in new cities on a regular basis. Please do contact us if you’d like to work in partnership to launch walkit.com in your city.

Why are you routing me down busy roads?

The (default) ‘direct’ option tries to find the shortest walking route between the 2 points you enter.  In some circumstances this will take you down a busy road.  However if you select the ‘less busy’ radio button we will try and find you a route that avoids the busiest roads, and favours routes across parks or down quieter streets.  We can’t guarantee the route will be ‘nice’ however as you will sometimes just have to contend with a noisy/busy street to get from A to B!  But if you think we’re missing a trick somewhere, please let us know.

Are you going to do bicycle routing?

Bike routing is something we might do in the longer term. It is intrinsically more complex however: people have different cycling proficiencies; we'd need to track down data on dedicated cycle routes/lanes; and as a cyclist you have to obey the usual rules of the road (one-way streets, turn restrictions etc - though there are exceptions…). So it isn’t a trivial piece of functionality to add in quickly. The beauty of walking is that you're largely unrestricted in where you can go.

Why don’t you have more comprehensive footpath data?

As there aren’t any ‘off-the-shelf’ datasets with which to build a walking route planner, we are having to do a lot of the development work ourselves.

In particular we’re collating information about routes across parks, along rivers, beside canals, down alleys etc – all the stuff you won’t find in most vehicle-based journey planners. Key to this process is the incredibly useful feedback we receive from our users about specific pedestrian routes they are familiar with. We call this the ‘walking knowledge’.

So apologies if we’re missing a specific link, or haven’t mapped your local park yet – it’s an ongoing process! With our current resources we have to concentrate on city centres (roughly a 10km diameter circle), so parks in outer areas may not be covered.  But if you write in, we’ll endeavour to act on your feedback as quickly as possible.

Why don’t you show more landmarks/features on your mapping?

Our base mapping data includes a limited selection of public building outlines (such as Buckingham Palace), but not as many as we’d like (e.g. Edinburgh Castle!). As we receive more data updates from our supplier, we hope this will improve. We may also digitize some building outlines ourselves and add them in. But if you know of someone who can supply us with a good building outline data layer, please do get in touch.

How do I zoom in and out and pan around the maps?

To zoom you can:

• Right–click on the map and select ‘Zoom in’ or ‘Zoom out’ from that point; or
• Use the slider bar on the left of each map

To move around:

• Click on the map and then drag; or
• Use the arrow buttons at the top of the slider bar on the left of each map

How can I print things out (and at a legible scale)?

For maps

For an overview map of the whole journey, click the ‘Print map only’ link on the data bar at the top of each map. If road names are not legible you may need to zoom in (right click on the map and select ‘Zoom In at This Point’) and then print out multiple sections of the route (you can click and drag the map).

For text directions

Click the ‘Print text directions only’ link on the data bar at the top of each map.

For a map and text direction together

This may sound like a simple feature, but there are complexities. Please bear with us while we work this out.

Are you going to add more ‘via’ options?

This is on our ‘to do’ list - please bear with us!

Why can’t I see any maps?

Our maps are created using Adobe Flash, and you need to have the Flash Player installed (version 7 or more recent) in order to view the maps. Flash Player is installed on the vast majority of Mac and PC systems.

However, if you don’t have it installed, or you have Javascript disabled, you might not see the maps at all (or not optimally).

Furthermore, if you are accessing the internet from behind a firewall or proxy server (or both), Adobe Flash-formatted files may be blocked.

For more detailed information on how to resolve these issues, section 4 of this article may be useful.

How do you calculate your carbon figures?

We simply multiply the route distance by standard carbon dioxide conversion factors:

• Average car (unknown fuel) = 0.2075 kg CO₂ per km
• Bus = 0.0891 kg CO₂ per passenger km
• Taxi (presume = large diesel car) = 0.2635 kg CO₂ per km

Further detail can be found in this Defra Report (June 2007)

Obviously our methodology is only approximate, not least because the CO₂ will only be ‘avoided’ if someone acts on the information we provide, and switches to walking from an alternative mode of transport.

How do you calculate your Calorie figures?

Our calculations are approximate, and intended as a guide only. To calculate accurate estimates of Calories burned we would need to know your weight at the very least (height, age, sex and level of fitness all impact on how much energy you expend while walking.)

For the sake of brevity we assumed an ‘average’ adult weight of 70kg (11 stone).

We take the average weight, walking speed and journey time and plug them into the Pandolf equation [1] to get an estimate of the amount of oxygen used during the exercise. With some jiggery–pokery we then convert that into an estimate of Calories burned (Calories are equivalent to kilocalories or kcal, in case you were wondering.)

You can get a closer estimate of Calories burned by adjusting our figures for your weight (in kilograms). Take the number of Calories estimated for the journey you are interested in — at the speed you walk — divide it by 70 and multiply the result by your weight (don’t forget your weight has to be in kg!).

We would like to acknowledge the kind help of Dr. Keith Tolfrey, Senior Lecturer Paediatric Exercise Physiology at Loughbrough University, and Dr. Omar Mian, Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), who pointed us in the direction of the relevant research and answered our questions.

[1] Pandolf, K. B., Givoni, B., Goldman, R. F. (1977). Predicting energy expenditure with loads while standing or walking very slowly. J. Appl. Physiol.: Respirat. Environ. Exercise Physiol. 43(4): 577-581, 1977

What do the Calorie figures mean?

Any measure of Calories burned gives you an indiciation of the total amount of energy you use during a specific activity (or indeed when you are at rest.) Your body is always using up Calories – it just uses more when you do more work.

Most processed foods now carry labelling information that includes the number of Calories (Calories and ‘kcal’ are the same thing) contained within the food. When you eat food you take in Calories.

You can directly compare the Calorie figures on the back of food packets with the Calorie estimates produced by walkit.com. For example a 40g bar of one of the UK’s favourite chocolates contains 220 Calories. To burn off this many Calories (and feel really virtuous!) a person weighing 70kg would need to walk 2 and 2/3 miles at an average pace of 3mph (53 minutes).

How do you calculate your slow/medium/fast walking times?

We assume the following average walking speeds:

• Slow = 2 mph
• Medium = 3 mph
• Fast = 4 mph

Isn’t it sometimes unsafe to walk?

We’d recommend that everyone takes sensible precautions – you can find advice from organisations such as Safer Streets (West Midlands Police), Metropolitan Police and Living Streets Walking Works – but we’re not in a position to suggest that any given area is safe or unsafe. We hope that the more people walk in a neighbourhood, the safer if begins to feel for everyone.

Your low–pollution route didn’t go the way I would have expected. Why might this be?

When calculating a ‘low pollution’ walking route we look at the average NO₂ along each road or path segment (inner-London only at the moment), and the path segment’s length. We take these together as an estimate of a pedestrian’s likely average exposure to NO₂ along that path segment. A route is chosen that minimises the overall exposure to NO₂.

This means that a walking route may include a section that passes through an area of relatively high NO₂ concentration because alternative routes – although they may pass through areas with much lower NO₂ – will spend correspondingly longer in those areas, leading to a higher overall exposure to air–pollution.

It is important to note that the pollution data we are using are modelled data. This means that a low-pollution walking route cannot be guaranteed to give the absolute minimum pollution exposure for a walking route between any two given points on any given day. A route is anticipated to be the lowest or amongst the lowest walking routes on an ‘average’ day.

Are you working with the London Mayor’s Office or Transport for London?

While very many of you have suggested that we work in partnership with Ken and/or TfL, we can only do this if there is some willingness on their side. Currently, this does not appear to be the case.